00:00We're here to talk about one of the most remarkable, moving and inspiring documentaries about bike
00:06racing that I've ever seen. We have the creators, Donna and Jay, and we have the creator of the
00:12ride that the documentary is about, Eros Pali. The documentary is called Grinta, which means
00:20Eros. Grit. Never give up. Grit. Suffering. And just keep going. And you just kept going.
00:27And now I want to dive into that a little bit, really briefly. Can you tell us about your ride
00:35up Mont Ventoux, 1994, and what the circumstance was that led you to this unprecedented, stunning,
00:44still surprising victory? I'm attacked because someone pissed me off. I was stopped for P
00:50and somebody attacked on the wrong moment. I show you now how can attack on the stage to the front.
00:58I remember I spent about 15k to arrive at the right moment to attack. And then there was no space
01:08for attack in the room because all the road was completely occupied by the peloton. So there was
01:16rock on the right side. And at a certain moment, I saw some grass. I decided to move out from the
01:24for the road and jump in the grass for 50 meters and jump again on the road, push down the last
01:30gear, the 12, because the time had 54, 12, 24 behind with 39 in the front. They tried to catch me, but
01:40there was my territory. I was a good ruler. And then I kept going. And then at a certain moment,
01:49arrived at the motorbike, they said, okay, you have three minutes, then four, then five. And the moment
01:57I started to calculate, maybe I can do the, I can try for the stage. The sunshine was over me because
02:08the inner shadow was about 3 p.m. Can you imagine? It was, I think it was more than 90 Celsius,
02:1490 in Fahrenheit. It was about 42 Celsius. So, super hot. I remember I drink so much water,
02:22put some water on my neck to try to cool down a bit. The important survive. The terrific moment was one
02:34Pantani attack. That was the moment because the motorbike, hey, Pantani attack. I said, okay,
02:41mama mia. Just one can catch me in the moment too. Pantani.
02:48Yeah. So, iconic, legendary, cruel crime. You had no business being ahead of the pack at that point,
02:56but you had a huge lead. You gutted it out, you used your grit, and you won ahead of some of the
03:03greatest climbers of that generation. As you said, Marco Pantani, Miguel Indurain, I think Richard
03:10Varank, I don't know if Luc LeBlanc was in there. I remember watching this in 1994. I don't think it was
03:16live. I think it was a 30-minute recap, but I was with Bicycling, and I had been hearing through the
03:22day, some of my friends in Europe were like, you're not going to believe this stage. You're not going
03:25to believe what happened. I don't want to ruin it for you. You got to watch. You got to watch.
03:30And then I remember watching it and just thinking like this, this did not happen. Like what,
03:38what just happened? Like who is this? You know, I knew who you were. You had been, you had been a great
03:43role player, a great role player, a great sprinter. You had been to the Olympics. You wore your, you
03:52know, your trademark visor, cycling cap without a top, knew who you were, started watching the stage.
03:59And I was like, well, this is going to be fascinating. This guy is turning himself inside out.
04:03It's going to be great when they catch him because what a, you know, what a testament to just, to, to,
04:09to gutsiness. And you won. And that stage always stuck with me.
04:19And I've, I've, myself have, you know, thought about that every once in a while when things were
04:25really going bad and I needed to dig deep on a bike. And I thought I understood it. And then I
04:32watched the documentary Grinta and I found out there's so much more to it than I ever knew.
04:41I'm a, I'm a deep student of bike racing and of cycling, but there was so much more to it,
04:47so much more that was moving. And it's such a story from the heart. Um, Don, Donna and Jay, you,
04:53you, you helped capture all these moments. Do you, do you have any insight on how did this grow for
05:03you the way it did for me? You know, we, we met Eros a few years ago. We were on an Angamba cycling
05:08trip in Tuscany and he's telling this story. We're sitting across the table from him. He has a glass of
05:13wine and we just love hearing him. I know him tell that story so much. And it was really our idea that we
05:21would make it possible for him to share the story in much the same way. Once we got there last year
05:26and started filming, we realized how much of this is certainly about cycling and huge achievement.
05:32And it's really inspirational, but it's about love and family and heart. Like you said,
05:38that that's what really, in addition to Eros just being an amazing leading man, that's what really makes
05:45the story resonate for people when they see the film is, are those additional aspects. And for non-cyclists
05:51who maybe don't know anything about cycling, they can appreciate the beat, but it's the things that,
05:55it's the way it makes them feel that we, we realize that that makes a difference when they see Gritta.
06:00I would say, if you think, you know, bike racing, you think, you know, grit, but also if you think,
06:05you know, family, if you think, you know, sacrifice, if you think, you know, what it means to love
06:11something or other people, you have to see this documentary. I, I was brought close to tears and I've heard
06:19that at screenings, um, people have come out crying and I, it, it's no, no surprise to me. I'm ju,
06:26I'm just blown away by how moving this documentary is. You know, for a cyclist, uh, especially like,
06:38uh, a ruler like me, our domestic is, uh, trying to do the best, our best, my best was in the sprint,
06:45but the day was something unique. But for me, normal, I tried to win a stage. I was lucky. I won the stage
06:52to the front for me. It was just a stage. It was not a stage. I didn't realize that the stage movement
06:59was a so huge moment, so huge monument climb. For me, it was just a normal climb. It's my job to
07:08suffering on the bike. You know, cyclists, the first job is, the first rule is suffering.
07:16All day, for all your life as a cyclist, you must be suffering. I still suffer right now, riding my
07:24bike. And then every time I go back to the movement too, uh, I said, I can't believe that. I can't believe
07:32I did it. It's impossible. How I did it. Like you said, just, huh? And, uh, suffering and greater.
07:42Yeah. Just this. Never give up. Yeah. Let's get into that for a second, because you, you were an
07:49underdog. And I think that's also an important part of why this speaks to so many people. So few of us
07:55are champions, uh, you know, no matter what we do, you know, myself included, whether that's in bike
08:02racing or, you know, anything else that I really pursue. Very few actual victories in my life. A lot
08:12of, a lot of striving and I put my heart into everything. But those, those moments where I
08:18triumph, uh, they don't come for me that easy. And I think that's true for a lot of people.
08:23And you were an underdog, not only in the sense that you're a giant of a man going up this giant
08:29of a mountain, but you were also, uh, a domestique, a worker. And I remember at the time
08:34a French journalist, you know, in kind of that way they have of describing things said something like
08:42you had won a race for all the, all the servants and workers. Uh, and I, I think that's part of
08:51what really makes this, that's one of the many things that really makes this story resonate,
08:56is that we can see ourselves in what you did. I think everybody, the worker like me, that domestically
09:03appreciate the day because, uh, you know, never happened. At domestique, yeah, we can win a normal stage,
09:13but a big stage like that is impossible. So, it was the, the revenge for the workers,
09:21probably for people like me. Uh, one, can happen, can, nothing's possible. For me, it was impossible
09:31for them, but I didn't. I remember one day I met this, I think it was in some place, uh, knowledge
09:40gate, uh, knowledge gate from Norway, a cyclist told me, he told me, he told me, he told me,
09:45exactly like me. He said, you know, I cry watching you with you because you're a big fellow like me.
09:52So I, Hey, I can do it. If you do it, I can do it too. So this makes me very proud of the moment
10:01and very helpful sometimes to make people to try to keep going. Maybe one day they can catch the dream.
10:11That's a, that's a very important part of this because I, you know, I'm in awe of Tade Pogaccia.
10:18I can never, never dream of doing anything close to what he does. In, in that era, I loved Marco
10:25Pantani. I knew I could never climb, you know, anywhere close to the way he climbs. But when I saw
10:31you going up Vantu, suffering up Vantu and turning yourself inside out, I remember thinking,
10:39and I've thought this at various times on various bike rides, or even in other parts of my life,
10:44when things have been really hard. Oh, I can try. I can keep trying. I can, I can have the same kind
10:52of grit, uh, that era showed on Mont Vantu. And that's universal. That's in all of us and we can dig
11:00down and find it. And I think that's key to why people cry when they see this, when they see
11:09this documentary. Um, I'd be curious to hear Jay and Donna, like as you, as you started filming,
11:16was, was that something you knew at the beginning or was that something that you discovered as you
11:20started hearing from people about it? We felt it when we were filming it. Um, but so it was really
11:28gratifying as people were watching, you know, we started showing roughs to some of our friends and
11:32family early on and almost from the beginning that they were, that they had that, that takeaway
11:38and just the inspiration. And again, even for people who aren't cyclists, who watch it
11:43are inspired to do something. And, and part of what people love about it, you know, Jay and I are in
11:49midlife. Eros is in midlife. People love that. He's still cycling. He's still working in the cycling
11:55industry. You know, he did that 30 years ago and he's going right back up that really steep mountain
12:01today really resonates with people as well. That's a great point. This is a living, breathing
12:07documentary, right? A lot of, a lot of these sort of documentaries about things that happened in the
12:12past in this other era, they're fascinating and they're great stories and they can move us. But
12:18guess what? You can go and ride with Eros. You can go off onto, you can sit down and have a glass of
12:23wine with them. And so it feels also very contemporary. And I think that's part of the inspiration for me is,
12:29hey, I can, I can still get a piece of this myself.
12:33I'm inspiring. People come to me.
12:36I have a glass of wine. They go up slow, slow, take it easy.
12:41Because this reaches so many people beyond cyclists, which I think is really important and
12:46really cool. Where's the documentary being shown? Where can people see it? And where will they be
12:51able to see it? We're screening at film festivals and hopefully many, many more. And we also are
12:58organizing screenings throughout the states and hopefully Europe, heading all the way up to the
13:03women's fondue stage of next year's Tour de France. But our goal is that as we get it in front of as
13:09many people as we possibly can, because people need a feel good story right now. And Gritta certainly is one of those.
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